Hippothoa
Hippothoa is a genus of bryozoans belonging to the family Hippothoidae.

Alison M. Fortunato · CC0 · via Wikidata/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.
On record
Recorded, not inferred- Sits inside
- HippothoidaePBDB
- Diet
- suspension feederPBDB, for Cheilostomata
- Life habit
- epifaunalPBDB, for Cheilostomata
- Motility
- stationary, attachedPBDB, for Cheilostomata
- Vision
- blindPBDB, for Gymnolaemata
- Environment
- marinePBDB, for Lophophorata
Time the record covers
At least 34 million years on record.
The record covers at least 34.6 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 36.7 Mya to 11.7 ka.
15 occurrences of Hippothoa on record, most of them in the Pliocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.
When
15 occurrences- Eocene7%
- Miocene13%
- Pliocene40%
- Pleistocene40%
These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.
Found in
6 formations
- Polonez Cove Formation1
- Mt Brown "E" Limestone Formation1
- Ototara Limestone Formation1
- Palos Verdes Sand Formation1
- San Diego Formation1
- Santa Barbara Formation1
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The named rock units Hippothoa has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 9 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Hippothoa and its relatives
PlioceneWhere Hippothoa and its relatives were recorded in the Pliocene.
Found in the same rock
771 taxa- Microporella ciliata8 sites
- Cellaria immersa5 sites
- Fenestrulina malusi5 sites
- Odontionella cyclops5 sites
- Arachnopusia unicornis4 sites
- Micropora coriacea4 sites
- Smittina marsupium4 sites
- Calloporina diadema3 sites
- Cellaria mandibulata3 sites
- Cellaria tenuirostris3 sites
- Chaperia rubida3 sites
- Colletosia radiata3 sites
- Crassimarginatella sileni3 sites
- Crepidacantha poissonii crinispina3 sites
- Escharoides angela3 sites
- Hippomenella bituberosa3 sites
- Hippopodina feegeensis3 sites
- Lagenipora punctulata3 sites
- Macropora grandis3 sites
- Modiolatus rectus3 sites
- Opalia borealis3 sites
- Panopea generosa3 sites
- Petraliella firmata3 sites
- Saccella taphria3 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 13 sites for Hippothoa, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.
This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.
Entered from
7 references- The Tertiary Cheilostomatous Polyzoa of New Zealand9
- Bryozoans and serpuloideans in skeletobiont communities from the Pleistocene of Sicily: spatial utilisation and competitive interactions1
- Biota of the "Pecten Conglomerate" (Polenez Cove Formation, Pliocene) of King George Island (South Shetland Islands, Antarctica)1
- On Some Fossil Bryozoa From India1
- The geology and paleontology of the marine Pliocene of San Diego, California. Part 2a, Paleontology1
- Late Pleistocene invertebrates of the Newport Bay area, California1
- Fossil bryozoa from the Pleistocene of Southern California1
Each of the 15 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.
Media and terms
Media content1

Picture of Hippothoa
- Source
- Wikidata/Commons
- Credit
- Alison M. Fortunato
- Licence
- CC0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Hippothoa was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.
Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.
The description on this site
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Hippothoa”
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itHippothoidae through timeFormations of the PlioceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Lamouroux 1821